


From the Ground Up

by DarkKnightDan



Category: Kill la Kill
Genre: Alternate Universe - Boarding School, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Military, Fluff, Mako is still goofy, Military Academy, Military Training, Multi, Multiple Relationships, Possible smut, Rivalry, Ryuko is the new kid, Some Humor, Sports
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-03
Updated: 2016-08-26
Packaged: 2018-07-29 03:24:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7668280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkKnightDan/pseuds/DarkKnightDan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ryuko Matoi is the new girl at Honnoji Military Academy. In a school full of competition and rivalries, Ryuko gets caught up in a web of lies and social chains. Who will she side with, and where will she end up at the end of her stint at the academy? (I am really blanking out in the summary department right now, so forgive me for that.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Boots on the Ground

**Author's Note:**

> So, I wanted to have some fun telling some stories from my time in the military cadets. I also wanted to write a Kill la Kill fanfiction, therefore I have decided to do both. So, this story will be partially based in fact, hopefully someone will get a laugh out of some of the things that happened when I was a teenager.

I had expected heat, but nothing like this. When I had stepped out of the car I had been hit by a wave of heat so intense that I thought my new uniform would instantly begin sticking to my body with sweat. Heat waves rose off of the asphalt around me, sending up heat waves that obscured my view of the few far away buildings that dotted the ground of the academy.

“This is ridiculous.” I announced to my father as I moved around to the back of the silver jeep that we had pulled up in only moments before. Even this simple movement felt like too much in the heat that was so intense I could almost taste it in the burning breaths that I took. My father already had the trunk open, casting a small area of shade that I gracefully moved into.

“I’m surprised all of the grass isn’t just dead.” I asserted to my silent guardian as I looked around, noting that the grass on the grounds seemed intensely green despite the heat. Even the flowers that bloomed in small beds around the driveway stood defiant to the heat, standing in sharp contrast to the oppressively dark asphalt next to them. My father chuckled in response, but didn’t say a word. Instead, he pulled my guitar case out of the trunk and held it out to me.

Wordlessly, I grabbed the silver case and swung it over my shoulder, the color probably looking very strange when put against the green digital camouflage uniform that I was currently wearing. After I had adjusted my guitar case my father pulled my suitcase out of the back as well, holding it out to me like he had done with my guitar case only moments before.

“Thanks.” I murmured as I grabbed the bag and extended the handle, allowing me to roll the bad instead of carrying it, like he had done from our house to the car. Now that all of my things were unpacked, my father shut the trunk. This exposed me to the heat again, and I instantly regretted my decision to not cut my hair before I had arrived, even when it was pinned up in accordance with dress code I could feel it trapping all of the heat in the patrol cap that I was wearing.

After closing the trunk, my father walked quietly with me toward the main building on campus, which stood right next to the place that we had pulled up to. It was a fairly large building, an old house converted into an administrative office. From what I had heard about Honnoji academy, this was the one place on campus that you never wanted to be called to. As far as I knew there were only two things in this building. One was the commandant’s office, the other was the solitary area. Major discipline stuff, also where I would probably be spending most of my time this year.

As we walked I thought that I could smell food distantly, but everything about my senses was dulled by the heat that continued to press down upon me. Hell, I could barely even hear my own footsteps from how much I was distracted by the constant annoyance.

When my father and I got to the front door of the commandant’s house I realized just how imposing it was. Though it was a fairly standard house in and of itself, two stories, fairly small, the heavy wooden door made me think of some old dungeon. Oddly, I found that fitting. I glanced back at my father, waiting to see if he would knock. After a moment of him standing with his hands in his pockets I rolled my eyes and reached forward, rapping my knuckles against the heavy wood, which created thunderous echoes within the house.

After knocking, I stepped back and squared my shoulders, waiting for the door to open. I figured that the commandant would be right with me, but it seemed that she wasn’t in a rush to greet her new arrival. I glanced over at my father after about a minute of waiting.

“Should I knock again?” I questioned and he shrugged.

“You can try, if you would like.” Was all that he responded with. So, I reached forward to knock again when, suddenly, the door was jerked open. When I looked up into the face of the commandant I withdrew my hand, but still kept my generally loose stance. My first impression of the commandant was that she was much more imposing in real life than she was in the pictures that I had seen. The picture on the academy’s website had displayed a kind looking, silver haired woman who smiled at the camera with bright brown eyes that almost looked like a dull orange.

This picture was probably the most falsified thing I had ever witnessed. The kind eyes that I had seen in the picture were replaced by intense ones, with a gaze that I imagined could cut through steel. Even the way this woman held herself spoke of more power than kindness. I could respect the power, but the way she carried herself was just a little bit too tight.

I expected her to yell from the way that she looked at me, but instead the smallest of smiles broke her stone-like façade as she directed her gaze toward my father.

“Mr. Matoi, I presume?” My father didn’t reply, but instead returned her smile and extended his hand. She returned the gesture and then my father turned to me, nodded, and walked away. I hadn’t expected much more from the introverted man that had raised me from a basement my whole life, but it was still kind of disheartening to see him walk away without so much as a word of farewell. It wasn’t like he hadn’t just dropped me off at an academy I wouldn’t come home from for eight months or anything, but whatever.

When I returned my gaze to the commandant her stony expression had returned. I wondered what I should ask her, my first thought being that I needed to know where my barracks were. When I opened my mouth to speak the commandant instantly drilled me.

“You will stand at attention while you speak to me, Private.” She barked and I bit my lip, fighting back the urge to throw some kind of rebuttal in her face. Not wanting to be thrown into the infamous Hole just yet, I decided that I would comply with her orders, for now. I bought my feet together and squared my shoulders, looking directly into the commandants steel gaze.

After complying with the orders of standing at attention, I tried to ask my question again. Instead of grilling me on my posture, the commandant attacked the manner in which I was speaking. Firstly, she was angry with the fact that I used “I” instead of “this cadet”. Secondly, she wanted me to be yelling the entire statement at the top of my lungs, and thirdly, she wanted me to address her as ma’am at the end of my question.

My anger quickly rising, I channeled all my emotion into my ensuing question, shouting at the top of my lungs about where my barracks was. With a smile that spoke of a hint of satisfaction, the commandant informed that I was staying in Miller Hall, which was directly behind the mess hall. Now, where the mess hall was, that was a complete mystery to me. Instead of asking about the location of this other building was, I just gave the commandant my best salute and headed in the direction of the clustered building I had seen.

The only issue with all the buildings that I had seen, was that they all looked almost exactly the same. All of them were brick, all of them were either one or two stories tall, and none of them had a damn sign telling me which one was which. What was even worse is that it seemed like that there were no cadets around. Either they were in class, or they were all in the barracks. What this meant for me, is that I had nary a clue of where I was going, nor did I have anyone to ask for directions.

So, for the majority of the afternoon I ended up just walking around the various building on campus, trying to figure out which was what. At one point, I looked into the window of one of the buildings and saw that it was full of tables. Deducing that this must be the mess hall, I instantly rushed to the building directly behind the one that I had just looked into.

This building, just like many of the others, didn’t have any truly defining characteristics. Brick walls, pane windows, doors that looked like they were made from sheets of scrap metal. Scrap metal that was rusting and had quite a few holes, at that.

When I opened the door I was met with the scent of heavy duty cleaner, which almost caused me to gag at the intensity of it. When I finally managed to compose myself I shut the door and observed the layout of the barracks. The hallway was a straight shot all the way down to the other end, though there seemed to be smaller hallways that branched off of it. Rooms lines each sides, though none of them seemed to be marked in any way. The strange thing about the barracks as that they were deathly silent, there didn’t seem to be a living soul inside.

“Hello?” I called, but no response came. I sighed, the commandant hadn’t even given me which room number was mine. Glancing back, I saw that there was a sign next to the door, with what appeared to be a list of names on it. According to the paper, the floor that I was currently on housed most of the boys in the academy, while the upstairs comprised the girls’ dorms.

With this knowledge in mind, I dragged my suitcase up the stairs and to the second floor. Once I made it there, I looked around for a sign similar to the one that had been downstairs. Happy to be correct, I saw that room numbers were listed by each name, assumedly room numbers. I ran my finger down the line of names until I found mine. Written out next to it was the number 217. I took note of this, and began to make my way down the hall. Just like the boy’s floor, it didn’t seem as though there were any cadets around.

My room was at the end of the hall, right next to the stairs. Upon opening the simple wooden door, which was surprisingly not locked, I observed the room that I would be calling home for the next eight months. There were two beds, one on either side of the room. Next to them were desks, and in the middle of the room, opposite to me, was a currently propped open window.

Upon further inspection of the room, I noticed that there was a girl asleep in one of the beds. It had been hard to notice at first due to the fact that she had covered herself heavily in blankets despite the intense heat. The only part of her that was visible was her mouth, which she seemed to have left a hole for in order to breathe. I cocked a brow, but decided I shouldn’t disturb her. After all, it someone was sleeping at this point in the day they were most likely sick. So, I propped my suitcase up in one of the alcoves next to the door, which I presumed was supposed to be a closet. I then slid my guitar up onto a shelf that hung over the alcove. Once that was done, I decided that I would try to figure out where exactly all of the other cadets were.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to go far in order to find the other female cadets. Once I had taken a step out of the room I saw that a small group of them were making their way down the hallway. Each of them wore uniforms identical to mine, the only differences being the various ranks that were pinned upon their chests. This contrasted heavily to the lack of a rank upon my own chest. Instead of the black stripes or shapes that represented different ranks, I had a patch of green fuzz where a rank should have been pinned.

The first person that I noticed out of the group of female cadets was the girl at the front of them all. On her chest was pinned the two bars that represented the rank of captain. Similarly, she had two silver bars on her patrol cap. Beneath her cap, a pair of sharp blue eyes cast a steel gaze from beneath two absurdly thick eyebrows, the likes of which made me want to burst out laughing. In fact, I did. So, I ended up doubled over laughing in front of the entirety of the female cadets in the academy.

“What are you laughing at?” The girl with the captain rank barked, her commanding instantly causing me to regret my actions almost as quickly as I had enacted them. I quickly stifled my laughing, though I couldn’t stop the smirk that had crept to my lips as I stood straight up, arms crossed over my chest. The captain cast me a very annoyed glare, which reminded me a lot of the commandant’s.

“Are you going to answer Captain Kiryuuin?” A short girl with pink dyed hair pinned up under her patrol cap questioned. I noted that she had the silver bar of a first lieutenant on her patrol cap. I told her that I would answer her if I felt like it and, in response, found myself nose to nose with the Captain. Her eyes, which nearly mirrored mine in color, stared directly into mine. After a moment, she broke the silence between us with a simple question.

“Are you the new student?” In response, I nodded, still with my arms across my chest. Captain Kiryuuin, as the pink haired girl had called her, nodded before I found myself suddenly knocked on my back by her leg sweeping mine out from under me. I looked up at Captain Kiryuuin as she cast a cold gaze down at me.

“We form up in half an hour for the mess hall. By that time, either you come with respect for both myself and the other officers, or I will make sure that your time here is a living hell.” She said nothing else, instead walking down the hall and turning into a room on the other side of the hall. The other females filed into their rooms, with each of them casting me a glare as they walked by.

When it came to getting off on the right foot, I guess you could say that I was pretty bad at it. I had already pissed off the commandant, and now it seemed like the highest ranking female officer was done with me.

This was going to be a very long eight months.


	2. Hazed

So, the first thing I learned at the academy is that hazing is very much so a thing. When I got into formation for the mess hall, I was told that I would be going in first. This delighted me, as I hadn’t actually eaten that morning due to my dad’s insistence that we get to the academy. That, and his compulsion to never stop on the road unless it was absolutely necessary. Unfortunately, I was then informed that I would be going in first so that I could be one of the three cadets on kitchen duty, and that I would be doing most of the work, serving the other cadets while I waited until the very end of the line to get my food. In addition, I was told that I would be shown a board of ranks before I ate. One of the officers (probably the kissass with the pink hair) would point to a random rank, and I would have to identify which one it was. If I got the rank wrong, then I would go without food for the night. If I got it right, then I would be permitted to eat.  
How very kind of Satsuki to allow me such a basic necessity.   
Another thing I learned in formation is who the head honchos were around here. I didn't even need anyone to tell me, I could just see it from the way these four held themselves. On top of Captain Eyebrows, there was the aforementioned pink-haired bitch, and then three others who held Officer ranks. The pink haired one and this freakishly huge guy shared the rank of First Lieutenant, though I would think that the big guy had held the rank for much longer than the girl had, if I were to guess by the way that he conducted himself. He stood at the front of his platoon with his back squared, staring straight forward as he waited for orders from the Captain. It looked like he was the kind of soldier who didn't let anything slide when it came to his soldiers, and that reflected in the way they all stood. None of them slouched, none of them moved at all when at attention. They were basically a model group.   
Then there was the guy who reminded me of some of the people at my old school. His hair was a bit longer than everyone else's, definitely more so than the mountain of muscle that he was standing next to, the strict First Lieutenant. Unlike the big guy, though, the smaller one had a gold bar on his chest and hat, a Second Lieutenant. On top of the longer hair, his uniform was also greatly disheveled. A few of the Velcro patches that held the jacket together were undone, allowing some of his olive green undershirt to show. Parts of his shirt also showed at his waist, where it had come untucked. His pants weren't tucked into his boots, either. Instead, he had simply rolled them up so that the hem just barely met the sandy border of his boots. He looked like a complete slacker, which made me wonder how in the world he had become an Officer. I mean, it was my first day and I looked more regulation than he did. That may have been due to my father making me study the handbook before arriving, but, still, it was a little ridiculous that Satsuki allowed for such blatant disregard to her rules in her officers.   
Lastly, there was an extremely thin guy with hair that was dyed electric blue. Besides that, the only thing that was different about him was the glasses that matched his hair in an oddly perfect manner. Well, that and the fact that he had a smartphone in his hand for the entirety of formation.   
Speaking of formation, I actually didn't seem to have a platoon. Instead, I was off of the rest of the squads, standing by myself at attention. When addressed, I was designated as Platoon L, and asked where my roommate was. Now, this was an issue. Since my roommate had been concealing her face when I went into the room earlier (and hadn't gotten up before I left) I had absolutely no clue what she looked like. So, after glancing around the squads like I was looking for a familiar face, I just shrugged. This caused the Captain's pet to start giggling from where she stood in front of her platoon while Eyebrows shot a hateful glare my way.   
Christ, I've only been here for a few hours and I can't seem to catch any semblance of a break.   
"Right then," the Captain began "Private Matoi, do not worry about your duties in the Mess Hall tonight, because for abandoning your roommate, you will instead be cleaning the barracks, while the rest of us eat." the Captain then pointed with a thin finger toward the Barracks building, causing me to raise a brow. She couldn't be serious, right? This was a little bit wacky, even for a military school.  
"Now hold on-" I started, but I was swiftly interrupted by the Captain's stern voice.  
"I don't believe I asked for a response, Matoi. Now, get moving. I'll sort out the punishment for your lack of compliance once I finish in the Mess Hall." Man, who pissed in her cereal this morning?  
Not wanting to anger the Captain any further, I saluted and then fell out of formation, walking back towards the barracks with my hands in my pockets. The pink haired girl yelled something after me, but I ignored it. It couldn't have been too important anyway.   
Once again going through the scrap-metal door, I stepped into the hallway of the boys' barracks. The door slammed behind me, and I tore my patrol cap off in frustration. The whole way up the stairs I muttered curse words and insults at Satsuki and her little pet, and when I made it to my room I threw my cap on the bed that I had made before formation. Noting that my roommate had mysteriously disappeared without my knowledge, I sat down on the bed and put my head in my hands. I didn't even know where the cleaning supplies were, so it looked like I was going to get nailed for not complying with orders once again. At this point, I didn't even care. I didn't want to bother looking for the supplies, I just wanted to sleep.   
So, I did. I laid back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling that was painted the color of the sky on a clear day. I tried to imagine myself lying in the field by my house, on a day earlier in the summer when I had nothing to worry about, but as much as I tried, I wasn't able to. I reached between my mattress and the boxspring, where I had stashed my phone. While cadets were allowed to have phones at the academy, that right was reserved for cadets that had been here for more than a month. Seeing how I came here in September, everyone now had that privilege besides me. One of the girls, a sergeant, had come in asking for my phone, and that's why I had stashed it before formation. At this point, all I had to keep me sane was music, and that was all stored on my phone. So, as I waited for my impending doom from Captain Eyebrows, I put my headphones in and turned up some dumb pop song that I had downloaded a few hours before coming to the academy. The lyrics weren't that great, but the song had a soothing beat. So soothing, in fact, that I ended up passing out soon after I started listening to it.   
Now, had I expected an easy awakening after disobeying the Captain's orders not once, but twice? No, no I had not. Had I expected to have my bed completely flipped and wake up halfway on my way to the floor? No, I had definitely not expected that. But, that's how things went. I hit the ground with a smack and groaned, slowly taking out my headphones and moving out from under my bed. When I looked up, I was not surprised in the slightest to find Satsuki glaring down at me with her hands on her hips in a sort of power stance. I glanced where my bed had been and saw that a small group of female cadets were standing at attention behind it. A quick glance to my right saw that the evening had turned to night during the time that I was sleeping, meaning that I was probably in some really deep shit.   
"Downstairs Matoi, now. One of our sergeants will be waiting there to take care of you." Satsuki commanded before turning on her heel and walking out of the door. The small group of girls all shuffled out after her, and went their separate ways once they had exited. With a groan, I pushed myself up from where I had been sitting, much to my body's protest. I figured I might as well get this over with, maybe if I did it quickly then i would be able to get some decent sleep when I got back. After grabbing my patrol cap out of the debris that was my bed only moments ago, I stuffed my hair up into it and walked out into the hallway. Some groups of cadets were standing around, conversing either in the hallway or in rooms, but I didn't pay them any attention. Instead, I looked straight ahead and walked with my shoulders back like I owned the place. Who cares if I was in trouble with Satsuki? Not like it would matter in a year, hell, not even in a month. I noticed that when I did this some of the cadets moved out of my way as I went down the hallway, whether it was out of respect or a want to avoid me, I'm not sure.   
When I made it downstairs, I saw that I wasn't having my punishment carried out by a female, which seemed a little strange to me. Instead, I saw a guy leaning against the door. It wasn't one of the three that were Satsuki's lapdogs, either. I should have realized that by his rank, but it was still a bit confusing that Satsuki wasn't trying to make my punishment absolutely horrendous. I mean, this guy seemed nice enough. Looked it, anyway. He probably stood as tall as the Second Lieutenant with the long hair, though this guy's was black instead of the weird greenish-brown that the Lieutenant's had been. Oddly enough, it seemed like this guy had a red streak in his hair just like mine. I would've said he looked basically like a guy version of me, if it weren't for the fact that his eyes were brown, where as mine were blue. Well, one of his eyes, anyway. The other one had a scar running over it, and was closed.  
When I stood at rest in front of the guy, he looked me over with his one good eye, and cracked a small smile.   
"So, you're the new lamb that I'm supposed to kill?" He asked and I shrugged. The guy held his smile as he opened the door, gesturing for me to go out first. I walked forward, exiting the barracks and waiting on the other side of the door for him to follow. Once I heard the door shut, I saw the guy come in front of me. He then turned, faced me, and spoke with a baritone voice, one that held no hint of the smile that he had displayed moments ago.   
"Listen here. I am Sergeant Tsu. You have really gotten yourself in a mess of trouble, Private. Now, we are going to march down to the PT field. By the Captain's orders, I'm supposed to keep you there for the next three hours." His smile grew a little bit as he said this next part "And I can do whatever I like with you, as long as it doesn't show ina visual inspection. So, I'm basically going to make your life a living hell. Follow me." With that, Sergeant Tsu turned and walked away, leaving me to follow against my best intuition. He paraded me across basically the entire campus, and into a large, wide open field that spanned a space almost as large as all of the buildings on campus put together. Instead of stopping here, though, this guy led me into the woods just beyond the field, and then ordered me to stop and stand still. I did so, not wanting to incur whatever wrath this guy had built up inside of him, as he had said he was already going to be making my life Hell. So, as I heard him double back through the woods I stood, and waited. I wondered what this guy had in store for me, whether it be some kind of crazy physical abuse, or exercise, a mixture of the two, honestly either of the options sounded horrible.   
What came next, surprised me more than anything else that happened at the academy. When Sergeant Tsu came back into the small clear area that he had led me to, he no longer had a military bearing about him. Instead, he walked in with his hands in his pockets, and with that small smile he had flashed at the barracks plastered on his face. I waited for a moment, expecting him to give me a command, but after he just looked at me I felt like I needed to speak up.   
"So, uh, Hell?" I asked and he shook his head.   
"Nah, that was just for show. Relax, everyone's expecting me to be murdering you right now, so they won't be coming around." Not trusting this guy entirely, I slowly let myself come out of where I had been standing at attention. "Name's Senke by the way, you can call me Sen, though." He said as reached into his pocket, drawing out a pack of cigarettes and holding them out to me, a silent offer which I refused. This caused him to chuckle.   
"I would take this one if I were you, you'll get addicted sooner or later, and I'll start charging. Save it, if you like. Just don't let the Captain catch you with it, or I really will have to PT you or something." Taking his advice, I drew one of the sticks out of the pack. I had smoked a couple times before, but hadn't really appreciated it. But whatever. I tucked the cigarette into the pocket of my pants and the Sergeant lit up his own before sitting down on a fallen log, blowing smoke up into the air.   
"Alright Matoi, take a seat and let me tell you how to survive here."


	3. Shinguards and Nicotine

I wondered to myself why I had decided to go out for the soccer team, before my mind reminded me that Sen had reminded it. He’d told me that it was a surefire way to rank up easily, especially if you were good at it. That didn’t apply strictly to soccer, but the girls’ soccer team was one of the most successful teams in the history of the Academy, so they tended to get rank faster than any other sports team.  
Sen, on the other hand, played football. Like, American, not soccer. He told me that a good part of the reason he’d earned his sergeant promotion was because he was the star quarterback, and had been for the entirety of his four years at the school. That had surprised me, as I hadn’t expected him to do anything, with the way that he was so laid back about everything. Well, when he wasn’t being watched by Satsuki.  
Anyway, I stood out on the emerald green field, watching as the girls ahead of me divided up to play a scrimmage, one that Satsuki would be supervising to figure out who was fit for the team. I thought it was just a little bit unfair that she didn’t have to compete, but I had decided not to get myself punished anymore. I mean, punishment with Sen wasn’t that bad, but I anticipated that Satsuki wouldn’t send me to him every time that I stepped out of line.   
I messed with the mesh shorts that I had been handed by one of the older cadets, the ones that we wore for both PT in the mornings and soccer, apparently. I wondered if anyone at this school had ever heard of a little thing called comfort. With the suffocating cotton shirts that we wore paired with too-tight mesh, I figured that it wasn’t a concept that anyone here was familiar with. The thickness of our shirts only made the heat of the late-August afternoon worse. Even standing in line I could feel small rivulets of sweat beginning to run down the back of my neck, and my back. Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait in line long, as I was chosen to play on the team mainly comprised of upper-classmen. While the girl who was captaining the team didn’t seem thrilled to choose me, I figured that she did so more because the only other person left was asthmatic and would most likely drop before we got halfway through the game.   
I walked over to the team that I had been selected for, standing in the back of the small huddle that had been formed.   
“Alright, who plays striker?” The girl asked, looking around the group as she did. No hands went up, so I raised my hand. Truthfully, I had played soccer when I was at my old high school, but I had been more of a defender. I figured that if the team needed a striker, then I could be it, I guess.   
“Alright, Matoi, get up to the front while we figure out who else is playing wing.” From the way the girl was talking, I figured that we were going to do a standard formation, four defenders, two midfielders, three attackers, and a striker. With my position in mind, I jogged over to the center line of the field, wondering how long I was going to be able to run with the radiating shit orb that I needed to survive blazing down on me. Probably not long, honestly.  
It took a few minutes, but we eventually got the team all figured out, and got everyone into their positions. With that, Satsuki walked out into the middle of the field, soccer ball in hand, and set it between the two teams.   
“Go.” Satsuki ordered as she stood. Before I could react, the girl on the other side of the circle had already rushed forward, taking possession of the ball. She did so quickly, so quickly that I considered it to be almost frantic. I figured that if I could just cut her off then she would make a touch that I could steal.  
Fortunately, I was right. I ran up beside the girl to get into a tackling position, and she hit the ball just a bit too far forward. With this space, I slid in and took the ball, passing it out to my right side as I turned and headed up the field, toward the other team’s goal. When I was a decent distance away from where I had initially made the pass I turned my head to see that the ball had made its way onto the other side of my teammates, and was being handled by our defensive center.   
I looped around, waiting for an opportunity to make a run, occasionally stopping my jog only to resume it just as suddenly when the ball came forward. My team seemed disorganized in their passing, but I could see some sense in it. It looked like they were trying to draw as many of the other team’s players onto our side before making an offensive play. So, while I waited for the strategy to go into effect, I went to the backline of the other time, standing there with my arms crossed.   
“Looks like your team is hanging you out to dry.” One of the other girls commented, which I replied to with a huff. Yeah, tell me about it. I watched as the ball arduously made its way through the mid line of the opposing team, until it was passed into my space.   
I rushed forward like a bullet, taking possession of the ball before anyone could nab it from me. I heard the sound of footsteps quickly approaching behind me, and so I turned, moving the ball to the outside as I blew right past the girl who had come to pressure my offense. I sprinted, the ball staying nearly within my feet as I did so. I moved around one, two defenders, and was left with a wide open goal while the last defender sprinted at me from the side.  
I cocked my leg back like the hammer of a pistol, and then sent it forward. My foot hit the ball just slightly on the left, giving it a curve that sent it sailing past the goalie and into the corner of the net. Without a word, I turned and jogged back to the center of the field to start again. The girls on my team came up and begrudgingly gave me a sort of acknowledgment before going back to their positions.   
The game continued for nearly another hour after that. My team possessed the ball mainly on the offensive side of the field, though I didn’t get another attempt at the goal. I did, once, cross the ball into the box so that another of my teammates could score, but those were the only two goals that our team was able to score. The other team, however, didn’t manage to make a single shot on our goalie.   
When Satsuki called for us to stop, we all assembled in the middle of the field, waiting for further instruction from our commander.   
“You all did well.” Satsuki addressed the crowd of nearly thirty young women that had been out on the field.  
“However, we only have room for fifteen players.” With that, Satsuki named off the players that she deemed good enough to play. Satsuki was one of them, of course. As was her bubblegum haired friend, who had played defense on my team. Surprisingly, Satsuki actually said my name at the end of the list. I instantly looked up from where I had been staring at the dirt, brow cocked.   
“You were the only one who scored by herself, Matoi. You’ll be a striker with me.” Satsuki addressed me directly, which she hadn’t done for anyone else in the circle. With that said, she dismissed us back to the barracks. The girls that hadn’t made the team went off with their shoulders slumped and their heads hung, while the ones who had made the team walked with their shoulders held back, heads up with pride.   
I walked behind them all, hands at my side wishing for a pocket to slip into, but these shorts had none. As I walked, I examined the other girls who had made the team. They were all corporals or above, upper classmen, not surprising. I was actually the only one on the team that didn’t have a NCO rank.   
That was fine, though. I didn’t really care about rank. It’s not like Satsuki would treat me any different depending on the number of bars that I had on the front of my shirt.   
When I got back to the barracks I still had some time left before lights out, so Sen and I headed over to the place that he had taken me, just within the woods.   
“Did Mako not want to come?” I asked as we walked, already knowing the answer. As casual as Mako was, she wasn’t really one for breaking the rules. When Sen and I arrived at the place, he offered me a cigarette, which I took happily. As much as I had figured that he would be wrong about getting hooked, it had only been a couple of weeks and I had started craving the nicotine more and more.   
We sat on a log together and smoked under the ash at our feet resembled a tiny circle of freshly fallen snow, dropped by the blackened clouds that were our smoldering cigarette butts. When Sen stubbed his cigarette out on the log, I did the same, and then informed him about my joining the girl’s soccer team.   
“Well, hot damn.” He said with a hint of a smirk. “Looks like you’re going to start moving up in the world. Before long you’ll be a corporal.  
“Yeah, and what will you be by then?”  
“A sergeant, I fuck up too much to go any higher.”  
“Yeah? Well, I’ll hover at corporal just to give you a little bit of self worth.”  
“Gee, thanks.”


End file.
